Railway gate



Aug. 11, 1925.

H. H. MCCLURE RAILWAY GATE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 12, 1924 flbl'oa naq l F/bu//a/zd HM Zz/cre.

Aug. 11, 1925.

H. H. MCCLURE RAILWAY GATE 2 Sheets-Shee't 2 Filed Nov. 12, 1924 (j/wants@ m\ \\Nh Patented Aug. 11, 1925.

UNITE@ STATES HOWLAND I-I. MCCLURE, OF HUNTINGTON, INDIANA.

RAILWAY GATE.

Application filed November 12, 1924. Serial No. 749,493.

To all whom t may concern.:

Beit known that LHOWLAND H. MOCLURE, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Huntington, in the county of Huntington and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway Gates, of which the following is a specifica-tion.

My present invention relates generally to safety appliances for railway crossings, and more particularly to a vehicle protecting gate and to one combining in its structure and operation a. signal device which will plainly call to the attention of vehicular traiiic the ino-vement of the gate to its active and inactive positions.

More particularly my invention proposes a railway gate movable vertically in a plane parallel to a railroad and across the intersecting roadway, together with a signal carried by the gate and means actuated by the gate in its movement for shifting the signal so that the attention of vehicular traliic on the roadway will be attracted and fully apprised of the movement of the gate to both its lower active and its upper inactive position.

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates my present invention and forms a 30 part of this speciiication,

Figure 1 is a front elevation showing my invention, certain parts including the operating casing and the pulley housings being broken away and in section,

Figure 2 is a top plan view, and

Figure 3 is a detail horizontal section taken substantially on line 3 3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a vertical cross section through the gate adjacent to its center, 40 Figure 5 is a partial vertical section taken on line 5-5 of Figure 1, and

Figure 6 is a diagram showing automatic controlling connections.

Referring now to these figures and particularly to Figure 1 my invention relates to a railway gate 10 which may include a series of horizontal rails 11 connected adjacent to their ends by vertical cross battens 12 and braced by diagonal braces 13, the extreme ends of the horizontal rails 11 projecting beyond the vertical battens 12 and into guides 111 along the inner opposing faces of supporting uprights 15.

rlhe uprights 15 are preferably in the form of T-bars whose lower ends are preferably with the railroad, crossing the vehicular roadway 17. 4

Each of the uprights 15 has adjacent to its upper end a small pulley 1S for the reception of a cable 19 thereover, the inner end of each cable being connected to the adjacent end of the gate 10 and the other end of each cable having a counterbalancing weight 20 in order to relieve as far as possible the weight of the gate from the lifting connections but leaving the gate sufficiently weighted to insure its fall by gravity to its lower active position adjacent to the roadway surface 17.

Une of the uprights 15 also supports an upper pulley housing 21 and an upright guide tube 22 whose upper end opens into the pulley housing 21, and this pulley housing supports a second pulley housing 23 upon and by virtue of a horizontally extending guide tube 24; which positions the pulley housing 23 above the center of the gate 10. `Within the housings 21 and 23 are pulleys 25 and 26 and over these pulleys an operating cable 27 is guided, having one end, beyond the outer pulley 26, connected to the upper central portion of the gate 10. The opposite end of the operating cable depends within the tubular upright 22 and eX- tends downwardly into a casing 28 into which the lower end of the tubular upright 22 opens. This casing 28, located at one side of one of the supporting piers or pedestals 16, supports among other things a reel 29 around which the respective end of the operating cable 27 is coiled, the reel having upon its shaft a worm wheel 30 engaged by the worm 31 on the shaft 32 of an electric motor While this motor may be cut on and olf and reversed by manually operated connections, it is contemplated in practice that this will be accomplished automatically by train actuated connections upon the railway tracks at desired distances from the road way crossing so that the gate will be lowered substantially before a train crosses the roadway and lifted after the train has completely passed. For instance, as shown in Figure 6, the motor 33 may be connected by a wire 33a to a section of one of the track rails 33h,

the other track rail 33 being connected by a wire 33d to the motor 33 and having in said wire 33d a suitable battery or other source of current 33". rIhus the train completes the circuit through the motor.

During the raising and lowering of the gate, my invention contemplates the actuation of a signal such as may be calculated to call the presence oi' a railway crossing forcibly to the attention of operators oi vehicles on the roadway, and While a stationary signal such for instance as seen at 34 in the nature of the ordinary roadway caution light may be employed as a supplement, experience has shown that such a signal alone is in suiiicient to insure safety.

According to my invention one oi the supporting uprights l5 is provided along its inner :tace adjacent to its upright guide la, with a. rack 35, the adjacent side of the gate 10 having mounted thereon a gear wheel 36 in engagement with the rack, which gear wheel will thus be rotated during upward and downward movements of the gate. Centrally of each side ot the gate, a signal arm 37 is connected at its upper end to one end otra shaft 38. Each arm may be distinctively colored as for instance a brilliant red such as mostdanger signals are and may have at its lower end a signal light 39 either electric, oil or the like, one of the signal arms being engaged intermediate its ends by one end oit' a connecting rod 40 whose opposite end is pivoted upon a crank pin fil of the gear 36 so that as the gate moves up and down the two signal arms will be oscillated back and forth by virtue of their connection torshaft 38, thus arresting the attention of vehicle drivers and beingapparent for the foregoing reasons both in daylight and darkness. V'Vhere the signal lights 39 are electric, they may, as shown in Figure 6, be connected by wires 39 and 39 to the battery or other source of current 33e, and lamp 34 may also be included in this light circuit along with a controlling switch 89C.

It is obvious that railroad crossings equipped with my present improvements will be safe as compared to the present dangerous conditions at such points, to the great advantage of vehicular traffic and also the railroads themselves. My invention affords a simple inexpensive solution oit' the problem and an apparatus which is economical in both iirst cost and upkeep and is oi' strong durable nature.

I claim:

l. In combination, a vertically movable railway gate, supporting guides for the gate rising at opposite sides thereof, one of which guides has a vertical rack, a pendent swinging signal arm pivot-ally mounted on the gate, a gear rotatably supported by the gate in engagementrwith said rack and having a crank pin, and a connecting rod in pivotatl engagement at one end with the said crank pin and similarly connected at it-s opposite end lto the said signal arm intermediate the ends of the latter.

' 2. In combination, a vertically movable railway gate, supporting guides for the gate rising at opposite sides thereof, a swinging signal arm pivotally mounted on the gate, and connections for swinginglthe said signal arm during upward and downward movement of the gate, said connections including a rack carried by one of the said supporting guides, and a gear rotatably supported by the gate in connection with said rack and operatively connected to the signal arm.

8; In combination, Va railway gate movable to and `from operative position, a movable signal arm carried by the gate, supports for the gate, and operatively connected means carried by said supports and by the gate for Vconstantly moving the said signal meinber during movement of the gate.

4. A Vrailway gate, upright supporting guides at opposite sides ot the gate and in `which the latter is vertically shiiitable, gate counterbalancing connections supported by said guides, a motor housed adjacent to one of the guides, a reel with which the motor is operatively connected, pulley housings located above one ofthe guides and above the center of the gate, tubular members connecting said housings and extending from a point adjacent to said reel, pulleys within the housings, and an operating cable extending over said pulleys and through said tubular members, one end of the operating cable being attached centrally to the gate and the other end thereof being in engagement with said reel `for the purposes set forth.

In testimony whereof I have aiiixed my signature.

HOVLAND H. MCCLURE. 

